CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – An Alabama woman testified this week in the murder trial of her ex-boyfriend, Eric Lamar Caffey, who is accused of shooting a Clarksville man to death on Cobalt Drive two years ago.
Caffey, 28, of Cullman, Alabama, is charged with the murder of 42-year-old Christopher John Young.
In the early morning hours of May 13, 2020, Clarksville Police were dispatched to the 2800 block of Cobalt Drive due to multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting. Police found Young hanging out of his SUV with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Witnesses told police a man had approached Young’s SUV and said, “Give me your (expletive)!” before hitting Young in the face multiple times and then pulling out a pistol and shooting him several times.
In August 2020, the Montgomery County grand jury indicted Caffey and Amber Lynn Tanner, 26, of Hanceville, Alabama, on charges of murder and aggravated robbery.
Drug deal in Clarksville
Testifying Wednesday in the Montgomery County Courts Center, Tanner told jurors she had known Caffey since she was 16 years old.
“I met him when I was in the ninth grade,” she said, noting they had dated on and off for a couple of years.
As Assistant District Attorney Mike Pugh questioned her, Tanner said Caffey used her car frequently, and the night of the murder, Caffey said he needed to go to Clarksville for a drug deal.
Tanner said she and Caffey traveled to Clarksville to a set of apartments on Cobalt and picked up someone (not the victim) that Tanner referred to as “White Boy.”
Tanner said they stopped at a Shell station, then at a hotel, where White Boy handed Caffey a pill. “And Caffey took the pill,” she said.
She said they drove back to the apartment complex, where they dropped White Boy off. Tanner said she and Caffey went to another set of apartments down the road.
At that point, Caffey got out of the vehicle, and at some point, Tanner said, she heard gunshots. She said she then saw Caffey running back to the car.
“When Caffey got back in the vehicle, he put a gun between the seat and console,” Tanner said.
Returning to Alabama
The pair drove back to Alabama, where they sat on the couch at a friend’s trailer.
“You didn’t ask him any questions?” Pugh asked.
“No, I did not,” she said.
Tanner said that while at the friend’s trailer, she heard Caffey say he hit the guy with the gun in the head.
Tanner testified they stayed in the friend’s trailer for a few hours before she dropped Caffey off at his grandmother’s house in Trussville, and then went to work that afternoon.
Tanner said Caffey had borrowed her phone the night of the shooting. While she was at work, she said, she scrolled through the history on her phone and saw that Caffey had pulled up an article about a shooting. She talked to her co-workers about the article.
“I showed them an article that Caffey had (brought) up,” she said.
Tanner also revealed she was interviewed several times by authorities about the case but did not tell them the truth.
“I lied, to protect Caffey,” she told Pugh, also conceding that she knew Caffey and his friends were dealing drugs.
Other men accused of same murder
Caffey’s defense attorney Travis Meeks got Tanner to admit she had accused multiple people of the same murder.
“Can you tell the jury how many people you have accused of this murder?” Meeks asked.
“A couple,” Tanner said.
Tanner admitted telling authorities that another man had her car the night of the murder, and she also accused a second man of the murder when authorities interviewed her.
Meeks asked Tanner if she had told the authorities it was those two men who confronted Young that night. Tanner said she had.
Upon further cross examination, Tanner said she was asleep in the car when she woke up because she had heard the gunshots.
Tanner testified she had told authorities Caffey woke her up to let her know he was about to commit a robbery. She admitted saying in a statement that she had her seat in the car reclined and she could not see anything because she was asleep.
The trial resumes Thursday morning.